SiO2 thin film produced by atomic layer deposition at room temperature

ABSTRACT

A process of atomic layer deposition for the deposition of silicon oxide on a substrate, performed at room temperature, involving at least three precursors, being silicon tetrachloride, water and one Lewis base agent, being in various instances ammonia. The process comprises the steps of exposing on the substrate during an exposure time (a) the one Lewis base agent, (b) the silicon tetrachloride, and (c) the water. The process is remarkable in that at least one step of purge with nitrogen gas is performed after each of the steps (a), (b) and (c) during a purge time. Additionally, a film of silicon oxide which is remarkable in that it comprises a low level of chlorine contaminant and a significant degree of porosity with pores, the pores being in various instances micropores, mesopores or nanopores.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is the US national stage under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2016/068899, which was filed on Aug. 8, 2016, and which claims the priority of application LU 92795 filed on Aug. 10, 2015, the content of which (text, drawings and claims) are incorporated here by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The invention is directed to the field of deposition of silicon oxide on a substrate, notably an inorganic material.

BACKGROUND

Silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and more generally oxide ultrathin films have been widely described as good components in modern nanotechnologies like dielectric material in silicon microelectronic devices [Frosch C. J., et al, J. Electrochem. Soc., 1957, 104, 547-552], anticorrosion films [Olsson C. O. A., et al, Electrochim. Acta, 2003, 48, 1093-1104] or non-exhaustive applications of nanoscale films in catalysis. The environmentally and human safe state of SiO₂ induces its wide use in protective layers for antisticking, antifogging, self-cleaning or water repellency. For instance, various techniques such as chemical vapor deposition [Ragesh P., et al, J. Mater. Chem. A., 2014, 2, 14773-14797], lithographic patterning [Park H. K., et al, J. Mat. Chem., 2012, 22, 14035-14041], electrochemical deposition [Gao Y., et al, ACS App. Mat. & Inter., 2014, 6, 2219-2223] or sol-gel [Xu B., et al, Surf Coat. Techno., 2010, 204, 1556-1561] are investigated to elaborate superhydrophobic SiO₂ through the tuning of surface roughness or energy. SiO₂ is consistently known for protective or gate insulator coatings [Klaus J. W., et al, Science, 1997, 278, 1934-1936], interfacing high-K materials [Wang X., et al, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2010, 97, 062901-062903] or surface passivation [Dingemans G., et al, J. Appl. Phys., 2011, 110, 09371-093716].

The increasing demand for transparent active materials in the nanoscale justify the need of a deposition technique compatible with sensitive pre-deposited underlying layer, flexible plastic devices or high aspect ratio substrates. Therefore, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is considered as one of the most suitable technique for its performances in terms of sub-nanometer thickness control and penetration coating into deep trenches or mesoporous structures.

Although the improvement SiO₂ coatings obtained at high temperatures engaged a lot of efforts towards ALD parameters or precursors, the question of the deposition at room temperature nevertheless emerged. George et al. described many times this atomic layer-controlled growth using SiCl₄ and H₂O [Du Y., et al, Thin Solid Films, 2005, 491, 43-53]. They demonstrated that a catalysed reaction using Lewis bases such as pyridine or ammonia avoid large precursor fluxes and can only occur close to room temperature. Nevertheless, in these reported studies, pyridine or ammonia was never really considered as a “precursor”. The proposed mechanism that considered the hydrogen bonding between the Lewis base and either the SiOH* surface species or the H₂O reactant was studied by considering the global residual pressure of a continuous flow of catalyst. Moreover, since a pollution of the film through the inclusion of contaminants arise through the secondary reaction of pyridine or ammonia with the byproduct HCl, a sequential approach could enhance the quality of the film and the understanding of the role of the catalyst.

Silicium oxide (SiO₂) films made at room temperature have been described as feasible by the exposition of two reactants (A and B) through a sequential exposition (ABAB . . . ). Many well-known precursors require high deposition temperatures, plasma or highly reactive co-reactant such as ozone gas [Kim H.-U., et al, J. Electrochem. Soc., 2000, 147, 1473-1476]. Nearly correlated to CVD-based processes and despite a low enthalpy of reaction, silicium tetrachloride (SiCl₄) usually reacts with water (oxidant specie) at high temperatures (>325° C.) [Klaus J. W., et al, Science, 1997, 278, 1934-1936]. A comparison of thermal ALD and room temperature processes reveal a higher growth rate/ALD cycle in favour of room temperature reactions (˜2 Å/cycle).

George et al. described the mechanism that spontaneously takes place through a catalysed binary reactions using pyridine or ammonia as a Lewis base agent [Klaus J. W., et al, Surf Rev. Lett., 1999, 6, 435-448]. The hydrogen bonding between the Lewis base and SiOH* (surface specie) or H₂O allows the reaction to be performed at room temperature. Compared to high temperature processes that use large exposures (>103 Torr·s), SiO₂ room temperature ALD is permitted trough the strong nucleophile attack of the oxygen from (i) SiOH* on SiCl₄ and (ii) from H₂O on SiCl* [Du Y., et al, Thin Solid Films, 2005, 491, 43-53]. Nevertheless, according to our knowledge, no specific data have been described regarding the variation of the chemical composition and the morphology of such films. Based on the catalytic effect of NH₃, it can be clearly deduced that a constant flow of NH₃ statistically ensures a maximized reaction of —O on all —O—Si—(Cl)_(n) available sites. Nonetheless, the perfect delimitation of the exposure windows at room temperature could be enhanced by working in a non-conventional high vacuum state (<10⁻⁶ Torr). As it may not be the case for standard ALD reactors like in our case, we tried to understand and control the mechanism of contaminants inclusion in this regime. Thus, the state-of-the-art production of SiO₂ at room temperature (˜25° C.) using a constant flow of NH₃ has been compared to pulse NH₃-catalysed RT-ALD.

Inspired by the reactivity of chlorinated precursors described in the literature [Damyanov D., et al, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 1988, 105, 107-113], the amount of contamination could be cautiously explained by the functionality x of the adsorbed 137 specie at the surface explained hereafter: x(≡Si—OH)+SiCl₄→(≡Si—O)_(x)SiCl_(4-x) +xHCl

-   -   x=1: monofunctional     -   x=2: bifunctional     -   X=3: trifunctional         The injected precursor SiCl₄ reacts with the surface hydroxyl         species. The competition between the single bond case (x=1) and         multiple bonds (1<x≤3) is directly linked to the stagnancy of         precursors in the ALD regime. As far as the concentration of         hydroxyl groups on the surface is increased, the saturation of         H₂O will directly enhance the formation of HCl. Concurrently         with the constant flow of ammonia, the ˜2.2 Si/N ratio measured         by XPS in the bulk of the film also indicates that strong         nitrogen contamination exceed acceptable limits, especially         through the inclusion of NH₄Cl salts. As indicated by George et         al. [Klaus J. W., et al., Surf. Sci., 2000, 447, 81-90], this         salt is formed as a result of the NH₃ catalyst complexing with         the HCl reaction product. Due to the vapour pressure of NH₄Cl         salt (i.e. 4.10⁻⁵ Torr), some quantity of salts are remained         inside the film. In that context, it is noteworthy that compared         to an inert gas, using NH₃ in a carrier gas mode may not         contribute to a pure ALD process performed at room temperature.

SUMMARY

The invention has for technical problem to provide porous silicon oxide layers with a significant decrease of the amount of contaminants, such as chlorine, included in the film.

The invention is directed to a process of atomic layer deposition for the coating of silicon oxide on a substrate, notably an inorganic material, performed at room temperature, involving at least three precursors, the at least three precursors being silicon tetrachloride, water and one Lewis base agent, the one Lewis base agent being in various instances ammonia. The process comprises the steps of (a) exposing on the substrate during an exposure time the one Lewis base agent, (b) exposing on the substrate during an exposure time the silicon tetrachloride, and (c) exposing on the substrate during an exposure time the water. The process is remarkable in that at least one step of purge with nitrogen gas is performed after each of the steps (a), (b) and (c) during a purge time.

In various embodiments, the at least one step of purge with nitrogen gas presents a ratio of nitrogen gas flow/total pressure which is inferior to 5 Torr, 4 Torr, 3 Torr, 2 Torr or 1 Torr, in various instances inferior to 2 Torr.

In various embodiments, the exposure time of the precursors is comprised between 50 milliseconds and 200 seconds.

In various embodiments, the exposure time of the silicon tetrachloride is comprised between 50 milliseconds and 200 milliseconds, in various instances comprised between 80 milliseconds and 120 milliseconds, for example of 100 milliseconds; and the exposure time of the Lewis base agent and of the water is comprised between 1 second and 3 seconds, in various instances comprised between 1.8 seconds and 2.2 seconds, for example of 2.0 seconds.

In various embodiments, the exposure time of the precursors is comprised between 50 seconds and 200 seconds, in various instances comprised between 70 seconds and 99 seconds, for example of 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97 or 98 seconds, e.g., of 90 seconds.

In various embodiments, the purge time with nitrogen gas is comprised between 1 second and 20 seconds, in various instances comprised between 5 seconds and 15 seconds, for example of 10 seconds.

In various embodiments, the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (a) is comprised between 100 seconds and 240 seconds, in various instances comprised between 160 seconds and 200 seconds, for example of 180 seconds; the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (b) is comprised between 10 seconds and 100 seconds, in various instances comprised between 40 seconds and 80 seconds, for example of 60 seconds; and the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (c) is comprised between 200 seconds and 360 seconds, in various instances comprised between 280 seconds and 320 seconds, e.g., of 300 seconds.

In various embodiments, the steps (a), (b) and (c) with concomitant purge steps are repeated between 50 and 5000 times, in various instances between 500 and 2500 times.

In various embodiments, the inorganic material is composed of silicon, silicon oxide, titanium, titanium oxide, aluminium, aluminium oxide, zinc, zinc oxide or any combinations thereof, or any other, in various instances silicon.

In various embodiments, the silicon materials are cleaned in accordance with RCA procedure before the steps of exposing.

In various embodiments, the process is carried out in a reactor which is equipped with a residual gas analyser adapted for determining the exposure time and the purge time.

In various embodiments, the reactor is further equipped with a quartz crystal microbalance adapted for the gravimetric monitoring of the film growth and/or a mass spectrometer adapted for monitoring the gas composition.

The invention is further directed to a film of silicon oxide obtained by the process as described in the first part of the present invention. The film of silicon oxide is remarkable in that it comprises a level of chlorine contaminant which is inferior to 5%, 4%, 3%, 2% or 1% of the total mass of the film of silicon oxide, preferably inferior to 3% of the total mass of the film of silicon oxide.

In various embodiments, the film of silicon oxide comprises pores, the pores being in various instances micropores, mesopores or nanopores (i.e. <50 nm).

In various embodiments, the film of silicon oxide comprises superhydrophilic properties, anti-reflective properties and/or insulating properties.

The invention is particularly interesting in that the correlation of the high aspect ratio and the oxygen concentration exhibits a super-hydrophilic behaviour. The silicon oxide thin films of the present invention further manifest a weak conductivity. The optimized room temperature ALD (RT-ALD) process can further be applied on a wide range of substrates that need to be 3D-coated with a low-K porous silicon oxide layer or any 3D temperature-sensitive materials requiring super-hydrophilic treatments.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 exemplarily illustrates ALD room temperature growth of SiO₂ under NH₃ catalytic regime.

FIG. 2 exemplarily illustrates saturation curves of SiCl₄, H₂O and NH₃ along the SiO₂ thin film growth. The growth kinetic is shown for 5 cycles sequential exposure of the surface.

FIG. 3 exemplarily illustrates growth kinetics of pure ALD SiO₂ growth with sequential exposure of the surface to 90 s of SiCl₄, 90 s of NH₃ and 90 s of H₂O. A typical zoom of the in situ monitoring of 500 loops deposition shown in panel (a) corresponds to a growth rate of 0.02 μg/cm². The panel (b) represents a zoom of the 60% advanced deposition. Lower panels represent the programmed exposures of SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O, respectively.

FIG. 4 exemplarily illustrates growth kinetics of SiO₂ for sequential exposure of the surface to 90 s of SiCl₄, and 90 s of H₂O, indicating a growth rate of 0.6 μg/cm³ per cycle. Panel (a) shows a typical zoom on 10 cycles of the total 2000 cycles deposited film. Panel (b) corresponds to the view of 2 cycles deposition. Lower panel represent the programmed exposure of H₂O, SiCl₄ and NH₃, respectively.

FIG. 5 exemplarily illustrates In-situ RGA mass spectrometric monitoring of successive 90 s H₂O pulses alternated with 300 s N₂ purge. The panel corresponds to the measured intensity of H₂O (m/z=18 uam) (uam=unified atomic mass).

FIG. 6 exemplarily illustrates XPS spectra of SiO₂ thin film obtained with a sequential 90 s exposure of SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O precursors. Upper panel corresponds to the signal of the raw film and lower panel to the film after surface cleaning.

FIG. 7 exemplarily illustrates SIMS depth profile of pure ALD SiO₂ film obtained with 90 s pulse of SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O precursors and extended N₂ purges, respectively 60, 180 and 300 s. Fast and slow sputtering rate are shown respectively in panels (a) and (b).

FIG. 8 exemplarily illustrates SEM images of the 500 cycles processed pure ALD SiO₂ film at different magnifications: (a) top and (b) 45° tilted view of the entire oxide film; (c, d) FIB cross-section images reveal a dense state of the SiO₂ film with an inhomogeneous crystallisation due to the unescapable inclusion of contaminants and the low growth rate of 0.5 Å/cycle.

FIG. 9 exemplarily illustrates growth kinetics of porous SiO₂ growth with sequential exposure of the surface to 100 ms of SiCl₄, 2 s of NH₃ and 2 s of H₂O. The in situ monitoring of 300 loops deposition corresponds to a growth rate of 1.5 μg/cm² per cycle. The insert represents a zoom of 10 cycles process.

FIG. 10 exemplarily illustrates XPS spectra of SiO₂ thin film obtained with a sequential exposure of SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O precursors. SiO₂ film deposited on (a) Si wafer, (b, c) TiO₂/Si (80 nm) before and after surface cleaning respectively.

FIG. 11 exemplarily illustrates XPS quantification of the suitable element of the SiO₂ thin film obtained with an optimized ALD regime on a TiO₂/Si substrate (above) and a Si substrate (below).

FIG. 12 exemplarily illustrates SIMS depth profile of porous SiO₂ film obtained with 100 ms pulse of SiCl₄, 2 s of NH₃, and H₂O precursors.

FIG. 13 exemplarily illustrates SEM images of the ˜260 nm thick ALD SiO₂ (300 loops) film at different magnifications: (a) top and (b) 45° tilted view of the entire oxide film; (c, d) FIB cross-section confirms the porous state of the film.

FIG. 14 exemplarily illustrates conductivity measurements of the porous SiO₂ film compared to a standard thermal oxide made by rapid thermal CVD (100 nm).

FIG. 15 exemplarily illustrates water contact angle images of (a) Si wafer, (b) porous SiO₂ and (c) top view of the substrate after depositing the water drop.

FIG. 16 exemplarily illustrates a schematic of the reflection ellipsometric measurements. The variable maximum angle θ_(m) is set at two different effective grazing angles θ_(e)=75 and 81°. Data were acquired in the full wavelength range 350-1000 nm. The spatial reflectance has been measured by counterclockwise rotating the sample as a function of the planar angle TR. Z-axis is fixed at zero to maximise the reflected intensity.

FIG. 17 exemplarily illustrates reflection results obtained by using the ellipsometer at two different grazing angles (respectively 75° and 81°). The reflectance percentage has been measured for SiO₂ deposited on glass (a,d) and silicon (b, e). The spatial reflection (c, f) confirms the homogeneity of the film with a limited variation of the signal as a function of the τ_(R) angle.

FIG. 18 exemplarily illustrates SEM images of various thickness ALD SiO₂ (100-300 loops) deposited on anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

ALD processes were performed in a TFS200-Beneq reactor in the planar configuration at a base pressure of 0.3 mbar. SiO₂ thin films were deposited on silicon substrates preliminary cleaned with a standard RCA procedure. The deposition reactor is equipped with a quartz crystal microbalance, QCM, (Neyco) for the gravimetric monitoring of the film growth. The QCM was fixed at the central part of the substrate holder. A quadrupole mass spectrometer, Vision-2000C, MKS-instrument, was mounted at the outlet of the deposition reactor to monitor the exhaust gas composition. SiO₂ thin films were obtained at room temperature using silicon tetrachloride (SiCl₄) and water (H₂O) as precursors. Vaporized precursors were transferred to the ALD reaction chamber with nitrogen (N₂) carrier gas. SiCl₄ precursor was purchased from Sigma Aldrich and used as received. Both canisters containing the precursors were maintained at 19° C. during deposition.

Morphology and thickness of the obtained samples were obtained on FEI Heliosnanolab 650 Focused Ion Beam Secondary Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM). The elemental composition depth profile was assessed by Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (D-SIMS) (Cameca IMSLAM) while the quantification was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) (Thermo VG Scientific, MicroLab 350) using an Al X-Ray source. The thickness, refractive index and reflectance were determined using the UVISEL spectroscopic phase modulated ellipsometer, Horiba scientific using a Cauchy function for analysis. The hydrophobic behaviors of the deposited films were determined by water contact angle (WCA) measurements using drops of water. Additionally, the dielectric properties of the films were determined using a Novolab broadband dielectric spectrometer.

As described by Klaus et al. [Klaus J. W., et al, Surf. Rev. Lett., 1999, 6, 435-448], the process described here above confirms that NH₃ gas molecule acts as a catalyst for the deposition of SiO₂ at room temperature (between 20° C. and 26° C.). Nevertheless, a significant contamination of the surface is coming from the excessive dose of ammonia. The contamination depicted here confirms the already described importance of adjusting the quantity of NH₃ to limit the reaction between HCl and NH₃. Thus, we considered that tuning the pulses of NH₃ like the other precursors could minimize unfavourable reactions at room temperature.

Based on the same chemistry used in the previous part, each chemical involved in the following process has been considered as a precursor. This means that an adequate separation of each pulsed chemical has been guaranteed. The purge of the reactor has been optimized using the appropriate ratio of carrier gas flow/total pressure (<2 Torr). Any overlapping between each precursor pulse has been prevented by checking the injection with the integrated Residual Gas Analyser (RGA).

FIG. 1 depicts the growing of a SiO₂ monolayer. Through the injection of NH₃ (under catalytic regime), the O—H bond becomes weaker, —Si can easily react with —O at the surface to form —O—Si—(Cl)₃ or —O—Si(Cl)₂—O— ligands at the surface. —O coming from water injection directly react with —Si to finally form a SiO₂ monolayer.

FIG. 2 shows the ALD saturation curves at room temperature for SiCl₄, H₂O and NH₃ precursors. In our reactor configuration, primary experiments demonstrated that the saturation time for all precursors occurred between 60 s and 100 s. The timing sequence of the experiment starts with a variable SiCl₄ exposure followed by a 90 s N₂ purge. Next, a 90 s NH₃ exposure was followed by a 180 s N₂ purge. Lastly, the cycle was ended by a 90 s H₂O pulse and a longer N₂ purge of 300 s to ensure a complete release of the subsequent unadsorbed water. This value of 300 s has been validated by the RGA. FIG. 2a shows the mass gain versus exposure time for various SiCl₄ pulses switched from 500 ms to 150 s. The profile presents a saturation over t=90 s. A subsequent SiCl₄ exposure, not shown here for clarity, produce a smaller mass gain even no gain. This can be observed through the saturation of the curve over 90 s. The total weight gain resulting from 5 cycles is about 0.13 μg/cm². FIG. 2b shows the mass gain versus exposure time for various H₂O pulses switched from 500 ms to 150 s. Starting with the previously obtained value for SiCl₄ (i.e. 90 s), the cycle is kept identical and a various H₂O exposure time is applied. A maximum weight gain of 0.18 μg/cm² is reached for 90 s and the saturation regime is reached over this value. FIG. 2b shows the mass gain versus exposure time for various NH₃ pulses switched from 500 ms to 150 s. SiCl₄ and H₂O are both maintained at 90 s, a maximum of 0.17 μg/cm² gain of mass is observed over 90 s NH₃ exposure. The trends observed in FIG. 2 were used to investigate the growth of a SiO₂ film in a pure ALD regime at room temperature. SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O exposure times were fixed at 90 s and extended purges were applied after NH₃ and H₂O pulses, respectively 180 s and 300 s. A purge for SiCl₄ lasting 60 s was applied.

Those finely tuned fluxes of precursors allow the surface reactions to perform smoothly and in particular, it allows a significant decrease of the amount of contaminants, such as chlorine, but also nitrogen, carbon and any others, which might be included in the silicon oxide thin film.

As shown in FIG. 3, the 0.02 μg/cm² per cycle weight gain is 30 times lower than the process done with a constant flow of NH₃ (which is depicted in FIG. 4). Nevertheless, the injection of NH₃ and H₂O precursors noteworthy contributes to a certain gain of mass (see FIG. 3b ) and a growth rate of 0.5 Å/cycle is obtained for 500 cycles deposition (i.e. a higher mass is depicted for H₂O). This confirms that the interaction of H₂O molecules with active complex of the surface ends through the efficient replacement of chlorine by hydroxyl groups (as shown in FIG. 1).

In our case, the appropriate purging time of water has been determined by using a systematic variation using the RGA (H₂O: m/z=18 uam). The trend shown in FIG. 5 reveals a 300 s purge time needed to decrease down to the base line.

The XPS elemental analysis (FIG. 6) still shows the presence of chlorine, nitrogen and Carbon in addition of silicon and oxygen. The amount of contaminants is nonetheless substantially decreased. First, the Si/Cl ratio is going from ˜4 (surface) to ˜8.7 in the bulk of the film. Secondly, compared to the films obtained with a constant flow of ammonia, the Si/Cl ratio is significantly improved (8.7 versus 3). Moreover, the Si/N ratio is heightened from 1.1 to 3.8 (resp. 2.2 to 5.9 inside the film). This indicates a limited reaction between hydrogen chloride with ammonia to form ammonium chloride. High resolution fitting of N1s reveals a single binding energy at 401.1±0.3 eV corresponding to NH₃ ⁺. This confirms the formation of ammonium chloride salt. The small amount of detected Al is attributed to the alumina sub-layer (i.e. SiO₂/Al₂O₃/Si).

The SIMS depth profile of the SiO₂ film is shown in FIG. 7. The intensity of chlorine is decreasing ˜30 times faster than the process done with the constant NH₃ flow. In fact, less than 100 s sputtering are needed to decrease the intensity below 1e5 cnts/s compared to ˜2800 s for the NH₃ constant flow process. Additionally, the intensity of nitrogen seems to be in the same range of 10 to 100 cnts/s. Related to XPS results, this corroborates the formation of NH₄Cl salt. The intensity of Si is nonetheless higher than Al, confirming the coating process of SiO₂ on Al₂O₃. Based on XPS and SIMS results, it can be assumed that this room-temperature process is optimized in terms of surface exposure. Nevertheless, residual traces of hydrochloric acid still react with ammonia due to the difficulties to purge water or ammonia at room temperature. Tittle byproducts quantities, such as ammonium chloride, are consequently integrated into the film.

FIG. 8 shows the top-view and cross-section SEM images of the SiO₂ film. We observe a porous layer with grains size up to 200 nm. A significant roughness is observed in the 45° tilted view (FIG. 8c ). Additionally, cross-section analyses evidence an inhomogeneous crystallisation into the film (FIG. 8d ). A thickness of ˜30 nm±5 nm is measured through the cross-section, also confirming the ˜25 nm value deduced from the SIMS pulverisation speed of silicon oxide. This lead to a low growth rate of ˜0.5 Å/cycle related to the lower weight gain observed with the QCM (i.e. 30× lower than the SiO₂ film processed under a constant flow of ammonia). Nevertheless, the type of crystallisation reveals that the process is not corresponding to a pure ALD growth mode as expected [Ritala M., et al., Chem. Vap. Depos., 1999, 5, 7-9]. This peculiar non-homogeneous growth at room temperature suggests that the surface reaction is in competition with the integration of contaminants. The self-limiting process actually promote the deposition of species onto the substrate and onto the deposits (e.g. islands, . . . ) with equal probability, if we consider that no particles can be produced in a CVD mode, then the inclusion of contaminants at a sub-atomic growth rate (i.e. <1 Å/cycle) could explain the morphology of the obtained film. Moreover, the high amount of hydrogen bonded terminal —OH groups could affect the dehydroxylation-rehydroxylation equilibrium leading to a higher quantity of HCl produced in the case of trifunctional bonds. Nevertheless, the oxide layer display a significant density in volume and the amount of inhomogeneous crystallites is limited. This is in line with the sub-atomic growth rate mechanism surrounded by a limited contamination. The tailoring of the ALD parameters in this RT-SiO₂ growth process manifests a substantial adaptability in terms of morphology and chemical composition. These results let suggest that a tuning of the growth parameters could influence the crystallisation that occurs. Hence, different type of SiO₂ layers could be processed at room temperature.

Low contaminants SiO₂ can be produced by adjusting the surface exposure of SiCl₄, NH₃ and H₂O precursors. Furthermore, the impact of a limited exposition to the composition and the morphology of the film has been carried out. Hence, the process has been tuned to maintain the low level of contaminants in an ALD non-saturation regime. The precursor exposure has been decreased to a minimum value for SiCl₄ (i.e. 100 ms) in agreement with a low contamination strategy. Then, according to RGA results, the exposure time of NH₃ and H₂O has been fixed to 2 s for both with a purge of 10 s using 300 sccm of nitrogen.

As shown in FIG. 9, a growth rate of 1.54 μg/cm² per cycle is obtained. Compared to the previous processes, the exposure reaction used here generates a ˜50 times higher weight gain. In order to screen any physico-chemical influence from the substrate, silicon oxide films were performed by intercalating a pre-characterized barrier layer. Hence SiO₂ growth has been investigated on two different sub-layers, i.e. TiO₂ deposited by ALD and Si bulk.

FIG. 10 shows the XPS experiment results. As expected, Cl, C, N elements are detected for both samples. In the case of the oxide deposited on TiO₂, the detection of Ti-2p before cleaning confirms the low thickness of the film. However the percentage of chlorine is clearly maintained below the limit of 3% obtained for the previous process with extended exposures likewise N and C (FIG. 11). Nevertheless, chlorine concentration is increasing as far as the titanium oxide layer is reached through the sputtering. Since chlorine is inherent to the TiO₂ ALD elaboration, the chlorine concentration is effectively lower in the film as indicated by the deposit on Si directly (FIG. 11—SiO₂/Si). In order to screen the composition and the porous structure of the film, thicker SiO₂ (2500 loops) has been processed on a layer without chlorine contamination, i.e. Al₂O₃ on Si (50 nm).

The SIMS depth profiling exhibits a concentration of chlorine that is rapidly decreasing as a function of the sputtering time (FIG. 12). Compared to the previous process, the intensity of Cl is starting a decade less, around 3.5e4 cnts/s. The amount of C is moreover comparable but the N concentration is slightly increasing inside the film (˜750 s sputtering time). This confirms the low level of NH₄Cl contamination included in a thick volume of SiO₂. Additionally, the higher concentration of chlorine close to the surface of the film hint the slow dissociative chemisorption of water that induces the desorption of HCl. This recombination clearly affects the growth mechanism of silicon dioxide.

As shown in FIG. 13, SEM analyses establish the porous state of the oxide film. Except the presence of 200 nm to 500 nm diameter aggregates on the surface of the layer, the top and tilted views (resp. FIGS. 13a and 13b ) reveals directly a SiO₂ spongy nature. The applied FIB cross-section (FIGS. 13c and 13d ) reveals also the presence of 20-50 nm cavities related to a porous film. Compared to the film obtained through the pure ALD process, it is worth notable that the mechanisms involved in this growth process generate alternatively hollow volume on behalf of the migration into surface crystallites. As explained in the ALD random deposition approach [Puurunen R. L., Chem. Vap. Dep., 2004, 10, 159-170], if the growth per cycle is not constant, the surface roughness should increase faster at the beginning of growth and slowly thereafter. This implies naturally that a smaller number of ALD reaction cycles are needed to fit a conformal deposition in a close-packed array as far as the growth rate is adjacent to an atomic monolayer.

By considering the growth rate of ˜0.11 Å/cycle obtained in this process, this could explain why the SiO₂ film is much closed as the one processed under the pure ALD approach. Nevertheless, its spongy state may be related to surface diffusion that are (i) on one hand limited due to the room temperature reaction and (ii) on the other hand widely promote during extended purges during the pure ALD process. In that case, residual water or byproducts (NH₄Cl, HCl) are considered as surface fractions where the supplementary amount of injected precursor will be adsorbed, leading to a non-uniform film. This peculiar structure is nonetheless attractive for some applications that need to be processed at room temperature.

The performances have been checked for both SiO₂ dense and porous film.

We investigated the dielectric characterizations on the SiO₂ films obtained in this work and we compared it to a standard thermal oxide (RTO; 1100° C.; 1 h). As shown in FIG. 14, the conductivity of the dense SiO₂ film obtained through the pure ALD is in the range of a 50 nm thermal oxide (10⁻⁷-10⁻⁸ S/cm). The conductivity measured for the dense SiO₂ is anyway ˜10³ higher than the standard oxide produced with a constant flow of NH₃ (˜10⁻¹¹ S/cm). Furthermore, the thick porous SiO₂ exhibits a low conductivity of 200 μS/cm. This could be attributed to the amount of —OH groups associated to a specific area that is higher than in a compact film.

Despite its low-κ state, this porous SiO₂ layer could be used as transparent backside coating or as a first passivation layer. No additional transparent, such as Al₂O₃ for instance, layer has been added in order to demonstrate the inherent properties of the as-developed film.

The versatility of the ALD process allows the production of a tunable low-κ layer at room temperature. This could be in line with many temperature-sensitive hybrid applications.

Hydrophilic or superhydrophilic surfaces can be created by tuning the roughness at the nanoscale or the porosity of a film. This is peculiar in various applications such as antibacterium, heat transfer or biomedical applications. Hence, the wettability of the film has been analysed by water contact angle (WCA) and results are shown in FIG. 15. Compared to the untreated silicon surface (FIG. 15a ), the porous SiO₂ layer demonstrates a remarkable super-hydrophilic behaviour (<5°). According to the XPS analyses, this could be attributed to the high concentration of oxygen in the porous film which presents a significant aspect ratio. The interest of hydrophilic behaviour commonly based on TiO₂ for instance [Huang T., et al, Surf Coat. Techno., 2012, 213, 126-132) could be transposed to a standalone porous SiO₂ layer.

One of the other aspects of porous layer applications is the possibility to create anti-reflective coatings (ARC). The main advantage to add an anti-reflective layer on optically active device (i.e. solar cells) is to improve the efficiency [Mazur M., et al, Opto-Electron. Rev., 2013, 21, 233-238]. The reflectivity has been checked by ellipsometry with two grazing angles, i.e. 75 and 81 degrees (see FIG. 16). The specular reflection has been surrounded by a spatial reflectance analysis in order to validate the anisotropy of the film and the results are shown in FIG. 17. A remarkable decrease of the reflectance percentage is observed in both cases of coating glass or silicon. The signal is constantly decreasing as a function of the thickness of the film but only extreme results are shown here for clarity. As the reflectance reduction is about ˜10-15% for Si, the scaling down for glass is maintained in the region of ˜50% especially for high reflection at grazing angle for glass. The combination of the maintain of substantial reflection percentage at various incident angles with less than 200 nm coating gives a good opportunity to use this room temperature process in a wide range of transparent applications. Furthermore, the possibility to tailor this process through the versatility of ALD may of interest to avoid multifunctional coatings.

The evident interest of this porous SiO₂ layer has been applied to a 3D material. Various thickness of SiO₂ has been deposited on an anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membrane and results are shown in FIG. 18. It clearly appears that the porosity obtained on planar substrates is transposed on 3D surfaces. This let suggest many applications that need hydrophilicity or low contaminants layer with a high precision on thickness deposited. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A process of atomic layer deposition for a coating of silicon oxide on a substrate, such as on an inorganic material, and performed at room temperature, involving at least three precursors, the at least three precursors being silicon tetrachloride, water and one Lewis base agent, said method comprising the sequential and non-overlapping steps of: a) exposing the one Lewis base agent to the substrate during a first exposure time; b) exposing the silicon tetrachloride to the substrate during a second exposure time; and c) exposing the water to the substrate during a third exposure time, wherein a step of purging with nitrogen gas is performed after step (a), and at least one step of purging with nitrogen gas is performed after each of the steps (b) and (c), wherein the at least one step of purging with nitrogen gas after each of steps (b) and (c) presents a ratio of nitrogen gas flow pressure which is inferior to one of 5 Torr, 4 Torr, 3 Torr, 2 Torr or 1 Torr, thereby obtaining a porous silicon dioxide film onto said substrate, wherein the level of chlorine contaminants is less than 3% of the total mass of said silicon dioxide.
 2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the one Lewis base agent is ammonia.
 3. The process according to claim 1, wherein the at least one step of purge with nitrogen gas presents a ratio of nitrogen gas flow/total pressure inferior to 2 Torr.
 4. The process according to claim 1, wherein the exposure time of the precursors is comprised between 50 milliseconds and 200 seconds.
 5. The process according to claim 1, wherein a) the exposure time of the silicon tetrachloride is comprised between 50 milliseconds and 200 milliseconds; and b) the exposure time of the Lewis base agent and of the water is comprised between 1 second and 3 seconds.
 6. The process according to claim 1, wherein the exposure time of the precursors is comprised between 50 seconds and 200 seconds.
 7. The process according to claim 1, wherein the exposure time of the precursors is equal to 90 seconds.
 8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the purge time with nitrogen gas is comprised between 1 second and 20 seconds.
 9. The process according to claim 1, wherein a) the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (a) is comprised between 100 seconds and 240 seconds; b) the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (b) is comprised between 10 seconds and 100 seconds; and c) the purge time with nitrogen gas after step (c) is comprised between 200 seconds and 360 seconds.
 10. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps (a), (b) and (c) with concomitant purge steps are repeated between 50 and 5000 times.
 11. The process according to claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises an inorganic material that is composed of at least one of silicon, silicon oxide, titanium, titanium oxide, aluminium, aluminium oxide, zinc, zinc oxide, and any combinations thereof.
 12. The process according to claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises an inorganic material inorganic material composed of silicon.
 13. The process according to claim 11, wherein the silicon materials are cleaned using an RCA procedure before the steps of exposing.
 14. The process according to claim 1, wherein the process is carried out in a reactor that is equipped with a residual gas analyser adapted for determining the exposure time and the purge time.
 15. The process according to claim 14, wherein the reactor is further equipped with at least one of a quartz crystal microbalance adapted for the gravimetric monitoring of the film growth and a mass spectrometer adapted for monitoring the gas composition. 